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The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
March 2016 Mobile Technology and Family Engagement: Texting Intervention Increases Head Start Parents’ Engagement in Parent‒Child ActivitiesLisa B. Hurwitz, Alexis R. Lauricella, Ann Hanson, Anthony Raden, and Ellen Wartella |
Research Digest
Harvard Family Research Project’s (HFRP) Family Involvement Research Digests summarize research written and published by non-HFRP authors and/or written by HFRP authors but published by organizations other than HFRP. For more information about the research summarized in this digest, please contact the authors at the address below. For help citing this article, click here.
INTRODUCTION
Early childhood programs employ various family engagement strategies to support parents in promoting children’s school readiness (Duch, 2005), and practitioners may want to consider sending text messages to parents to supplement their current efforts. After all, text messaging is a ubiquitous, fairly inexpensive, easy-to-use service that could allow early child care practitioners to send educational prompts and reminder messages in real time for parents to read at their convenience―anytime, anywhere (see Fogg & Eckles, 2007). To explore text messaging’s potential in family engagement efforts, we conducted a six-week text-messaging intervention study. Our goal was to determine if parenting information provided via text messaging could complement family engagement services in several Head Start centers by increasing parents’ engagement in learning activities at home with their children.
Figure 1. Text messages encouraged parents to engage with their children around a variety of topics, and, to take time to appreciate themselves. |
Summarized from Hurwitz, L. B., Lauricella, A. R., Hanson, A., Raden, A., & Wartella, E. (2015). Supporting Head Start parents: Impact of a text message intervention on parent–child activity engagement. Early Child Development and Care, 185(9), 1373-1389. doi:10.1080/03004430.2014.996217
Lisa B. Hurwitz
Doctoral Candidate
Center on Media and Human Development
2240 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Email: lisa.hurwitz@u.northwestern.edu
Anthony Raden
Senior Vice President, Research and Policy Initiatives
Ounce of Prevention Fund
33 West Monroe Street, Suite 2400
Chicago, IL 60603
Email: araden@ounceofprevention.org
Alexis R. Lauricella
Associate Director
Center on Media and Human Development
2240 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Email: a-lauricella@northwestern.eduEllen Wartella
Al-Thani Professor and Center Director
Center on Media and Human Development
2240 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Email: ellen-wartella@northwestern.edu
Ann Hanson
Director, Advancing Quality
Ounce of Prevention Fund
33 West Monroe Street, Suite 2400
Chicago, IL 60603
Email: ahanson@ounceofprevention.org
REFERENCES
Duch, H. (2005). Redefining parent involvement in Head Start: A two-generation approach. Early Child Development and Care, 175(1), 23‒35. doi: 10.1080/0300443042000206237
Fogg, B. J., & Eckles, D. (Eds.). (2007). Mobile persuasion: 20 perspectives on the future of behavior change. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Captology Media.
Halle, T. (2002). Charting parenthood: A statistical portrait of fathers and mothers in America. Washington, D.C.: Child Trends.
Smolkowski, K., Biglan, A., Barrera, M., Taylor, T., Black, C., & Blair, J. (2005). Schools and Homes in Partnership (SHIP): Long-term effects of a preventive intervention focused on social behavior and reading skill in early elementary school. Prevention Science, 6(2), 113‒125. doi: 10.1007/s11121-005-3410-7
© 2016 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College
Published by Harvard Family Research Project